


Zero Hour

by StAnni



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 13:39:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16934274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StAnni/pseuds/StAnni
Summary: The back and forth tug about doing as Bruce says and not doing as he says, is not new territory for them.  He knows that he can be a possessive asshole and he knows that he is capable of being wrong.But he is not wrong about this.





	Zero Hour

The apartment is small and in a dangerous part of the narrows but no one knows they are there so for, so it’s a plus.  
Things are alright, not great and mostly they survive by focusing their energies on keeping up supplies and misdirecting gangs towards each other, rather than to the clusters of innocents huddled in spaces similar to their.  
He washes his face and breathes through the cold air at his reflection in the mirror before drying the water from the sink with a piece of newspaper that he crumples and throws into the bag serving as a waste basket. Selina comes into the apartment, not aware that he is home already, and he hears the distinct sound of a pill bottle quietly tipping over into his girlfriend’s hand.

He comes out of the bathroom just in time to see her down a handful of whatever and hide the bottle under the mattress. She only sees him when she turns and takes a step back, reflexively at the look on his face. “You’re back to that again?” he asks quietly and she grabs the pills from the mattress before he can reach them. “Give me a break, please.” she backs away from him, holding her hand up and the bottle behind her back. “I need these.” 

He does understand that she is in pain. He loves her more than anything in the world, but the pills make her distant and detached, ultimately dangerous. “You know you can’t, Selina.” He insists and she stares at him, coldly, for a full three seconds before she slaps them into his open palm.

He flushes them down the toilet and she watches from the room, the only room in the apartment. “Feel better?” she asks, sarcasm heavy, hiding the sad waver in his voice.   
He doesn’t feel better.   
He hates seeing her in pain. But the world has gone beyond the point of where they still need to be precious with each other. 

“You should stay in” he offers, “I’ll go and meet Gordon.” 

She doesn’t answer at first but then her response is quiet, reticent “I wasn’t going to Gordon. I’m going to the Sirens” 

Bruce looks at her, surprised more than anything “Barbara’s back?” and she shakes her head. “Tabitha.”

He blinks and she watches him. “What do you mean, you’re going to the Sirens? I’m pretty sure they don’t allow day visitors.”  
She doesn’t answer, sighs and looks away.

He waist but after the silence that stretches between them, his frustration reaches a peak and he kicks at the table between them – basically, save for the bed, their only piece of furniture. 

“Is this because I don’t let you get high whenever you want?” 

She snaps back to look at him, her eyes angry “Because I don’t trust the police, Bruce and you don’t seem to want to listen.”   
He doesn’t say anything because she is not being entirely unreasonable - they have been burned before.   
But it is all the more reason for him to keep an eye on them, stay and have Gordon’s back.   
Still – he can’t just let her go. “So, our only option is to team up with the crazy amazon cannibal group, Selina?”  
“Not ours” she answers quietly and Bruce stares at her in silence. 

They have been spectacularly failing at keeping the last threads of their relationship together over the past month. It is hard to imagine that at some point they were allies above all else, above friends, above lovers. Now all of the tethers had been cut, one by one, no longer allies, no longer friends, just lovers who distrust each other.

He picks up the overturned table and she waits for him to talk, her arms crossed and stance guarded. “Where you going to say anything? Where you going to say goodbye?” he asks.

“I’m not moving out, Bruce. I mean… I just, I trust them and you trust Gordon so… we can both, like, be with the people we trust and come back home to each other here.”

It is preposterous and he narrows his eyes at her, shaking his head in disbelief “You realize that we’ll be on different sides, Selina.” 

To that she reaches her own limit of frustration and bites out “You’re forever with the “sides”, Bruce, grow up. There is no right or wrong anymore, there is just getting what we need to survive here. That’s it.” 

His heart is pounding hotly and he knows that it is more out of fear of losing her than anger at what she is saying “Selina, let me assure you, you, in your current state, is by no means capable of telling me that there is no right or wrong – in fact, just that you would think that…”

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head, turning away and Bruce grabs her, which also happens a lot these days, by the elbow and jerks her back to face him. “You’re not leaving here. You, hooked? Ambling off to the Sirens? Not going to happen.”

Digging her fingers into his grip she pushes his hand away and shoves at him “I’m not asking.” to which he immediately steps forward, crowding her into the wall “You’re not going.”

The back and forth tug about doing as Bruce says and not doing as he says, is not new territory for them. He knows that he can be a possessive asshole and he knows that he is capable of being wrong.  
But he is not wrong about this.

She sighs and tries another approach, so he steels himself, “The Sirens are a better fit for me. Gordon can’t stand me…” and Bruce makes the mistake of siding with Gordon by default, “You don’t make it any easier for him…” and Selina narrows her eyes and shoves him away, hard “Okay, stop.”

They regard each other, both on a knife’s edge, and finally Selina, exasperated, tries to make peace. “Bruce, I love you. Okay. You love me. Can that be like, the baseline, again?” 

Of course it is the baseline, it’s not only the baseline, it is Bruce’s only state of being. He takes a breath and considers. “If you go, and you don’t come back…”

“I will” she says firmly.

Looking at her, he asks “And the drugs?” he asks, because, that is one thing where he cannot move. She watches him, eyes on his, You don’t need to look out for me…” her answer instantly sets him on edge and shakes his head, done, as he heads to the door “Forget it, you’re not going anywhere.”

As he locks the door he hears her shocked laughter behind him “You’re just what? Going to keep me in here like a prisoner? You do know there is a window right there?” she says pointing at the open window. He shrugs, resolute, “Try to leave, let’s see.”

Like an animal that just realised it is in a cage she lets out a cry of frustration “Bruce!” and he yells back, ready to stand his ground “You know what this is, Selina? It’s the moment you make a choice!” 

Running her fingers through her hair, she shakes her head and answers him, voice quiet and even, “No Bruce, this is where you make a choice.”

“Decide!” He yells, livid, “You stay or you leave – for good!”

Blinking at him once against the hurt that flashes across her face, she turns away from him. “There is just no compromise with you, Bruce…” she says to him as she picks up her jacket and pulls it on, “I’m not one of your things. I don’t belong to you.”

He stares at her.

She stands in front of him – blank and honest “If I really have a choice, open that door.” 

He doesn’t move – “You can’t leave, Selina” He knows that he is pleading, he knows that she knows it. Her eyes soften just a bit before she answers, and walks past him towards the door “No Bruce, it’s you that can’t leave.”


End file.
